Batteries for Stationary Standby and for
Stationary Cycling Applications
Part 6: Alternative Electricity Storage
Technologies
G. P. Corey, Member, ZEEE
Abstract - As the need for stored electrical energy has
grown, the lead-acid battery has been the primary storage
component until very recently. Although improvements in
lead-acid technology have been made over the years, short life
expectancy and poor component reliability have driven energy
storage customers in search of longer life and higher reliabil-
ity storage technologies. New technology batteries have been
developed as well as other non-battery storage devices that are
meeting the needs for higher energy densities and more reli-
ability. This paper discusses these emerging energy storage
technologies and how they are being used in modem energy
storage requirements.
Index Terms -Batteries, Battery storage plants, Energy stor-
age, Emergency power supplies, Standards
I. INTRODUCTION
Lead-acid batteries have been in use for over 100 years.
Many improvements have been made and the technology is
fully mature for all practical purposes. However, modern
demands for higher energy density, lower O&M costs, and
better reliability have not been met with lead-acid technology.
Consequently, different battery technologies, such as Nickel
Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, Lithium Ion, Lithium Metal
Polymer, and Sodium Sulfur, are being developed to over-
come the inadequacies of the lead-acid technology. Flow bat-
tery technologies that differ significantly from the typical bat-
tery structures that have been common to energy storage users
are also nearing commercialism. In addition, new, non-
battery storage devices such as flywheels, super capacitors,
and superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) de-
vices are nearing full commercialism.
The demands for high power and high energy density stor-
age systems are also increasing as power reliability is more
and more important to'electric power users. Energy storage is
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lock-
heed Martin Company, for the United States D e p m n t of Energy under Con-
tract DE-ACW-94AL8.500.
Garth P. Corey is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia Na-
tional Laboratories, PO Box 5800 MS-0710, Albuquerque, NM 87185 USA (e-
mail: gpcorey@sandia.gov).
0-7803-7989-6/03/$17.0002003 IEEE
becoming an important component in increasing power sys-
tems reliability. While uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
on the order of hundreds of watts to several hundred kilo-
watts were adequate only a few years ago, modern industrial
production demands require mega-watts of power to keep
entire plants in operation while emergency generation is
brought on-line. In addition, power companies are ever more
dependent on stored energy to back up critical switching ap-
plications and nuclear power plant emergency back-up sys-
tems.
11. STORAGE FOR THE FUTURE
New applications for energy storage are in constant devel-
opment as new demands are placed on the availability of reli-
able electric power. Applications ranging from electric vehi-
cles to electric watches, backup power systems to energy
management systems, automobile starting to photovoltaic
lighting systems, are only a few of the systems that depend on
energy storage to meet their electricity needs. This section
discusses these emerging applications, the need for power and
energy storage devices, and where battery sizes are heading in
order to support emerging requirements.
A. Emerging Applications
The most prevalent emerging application is in the use of
energy storage on the power grid for power quality applica-
tions. Currently, lead-acid batteries are the primary storage
component used in these applications. Systems as large as 16
MVA are currently in use to provide emergency ride through
power while backup generators are brought on-line. Another
application is back-up power for remote telecommunications
sites that are becoming more dependent on high quality power
to operate reliably. However, the reliability and maintenance
issues associated with lead-acid batteries are unacceptable to
customers that require power quality support, and these cus-
tomers are looking to emerging energy storage technologies to
help solve these power quality problems.
Following closely behind in grid applications is the need
for energy management such as peak shaving or load follow-
ing. Associated with this need is the emerging application
currently referred to as distributed energy resources (DER).
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With the continuously increasing demand on utility electric
supplies, more generation in the right places appears to be a
good solution to this problem. Along with the emerging DER
applications will be an increase in the demand for energy stor-
age that will store electricity during low demand periods, and
dispatch this stored energy during high demand periods to
relieve pressure from generation, transmission, and distribu-
tion systems that are becoming more frequently overloaded on
congested systems.
The following is a list of potential utility applications for
electric energy storage:
Transmission and distribution (T&D) construction or
replacement deferral
Relieve transmission constraints and bottlenecks
Peak shaving to avoid or reduce end-customer time-of-
use energy charges
Peak shaving to avoid or reduce end-customer demand
charges
Supporting of power park or micro-grid systems
Electric energy price arbitrage (Buy Low - Sell High)
Power vs. Energy Applications
Each of the aforementioned applications depends on a bat-
tery that supports either energy or power requirements. Typi-
cally, energy storage devices can support only one of these
applications. A power application requires short, high current
events, such as short discharges during power outages or start-
ing an automobile. An energy application requires long peri-
ods of low current such as telecommunications site backup or
peak shaving. Energy storage devices are specifically de-
signed to provide support to either power or energy applica-
tions, but not both. There are exceptions, such as the Sodium
Sulfur technology that does a reasonably adequate job sup-
porting both requirements. Some of the flow battery tech-
nologies can also support short power bursts but are primarily
designed for energy applications. Discussion of the power vs.
energy potentials of each of the storage technologies will be
discussed in their respective sections.
C. Anticipated Battery Sizes
Energy storage applications require power sources that
range from several watts for small lighting applications to
multi-mega-watts for utility scale applications. As more util-
ity scale applications are identified, battery sizes will continue
to grow. Utilities that are considering energy storage applica-
tions for their transmission and distribution systems have
stated that the typical building block size for their energy stor-
age applications should be in the 10 MW, 10 MWh scale. On
the other hand, applications in the 10 kW to 50 kW, 20 kWh
to 100 kWh are not uncommon. One battery currently under
construction is a 120 MWh, 15 MVA flow battery intended to
provide peak shaving and power quality services at the end of
a long, heavily congested, transmission line. Another applica-
tion currently under construction is a 26 MW, 15 minute ap-
plication for spinning reserve. A third application that was
recently in service for several years for an island utility was a
20 MW, 14 MWh battery used for spinning reserve and fre-
quency regulation.
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111. NEWSTORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
A wide variety of storage technologies are at various stages
of commercialization. Some are chemistry based, some are
based on super-cooled physics, while others are based on
strictly mechanical devices. This section will discuss mono-
bloc batteries, flow technology batteries, and non-battery elec-
tricity storage systems.
A. Mono-Bloc Batteries
Batteries are typically constructed in a fixed voltage mon-
obloc ranging from a single cell to multiple cells in a series-
parallel configuration to provide the desired voltage and stor-
age capacity for specific applications. Batteries are also de-
signed as power monoblocs that are made up of many thin
cells that provide the surface area necessary to extract high
currents. In contrast, an energy battery is made up of fewer
thicker cells that provide lower currents for longer periods of
time.
1 ) Nickel Cadmium
The nickel cadmium monobloc is based on a mature bat-
tery technology that is widely used for energy and power ap-
plications, depending on battery design. Applications that
must function in environmentally hostile sites typically use
the nickel cadmium technology because of its superior per-
formance in both cold and hot environments. The transporta-
tion industry, mainly air transportation and the railroads, use
the nickel cadmium technology batteries for both engine start-
ing and energy applications on their trains and aircraft.
Battery size ranges from tiny rechargeable AAA cells to
large cells used in multi-megawatt stationary batteries. Figure
1 shows a nickel cadmium mono-bloc and a stationary battery
installation from the Saft web site. A project is currently un-
der construction in Alaska that uses a 26 MW, 14.5 MWh,
Saft nickel cadmium battery. This site will become the largest
nickel cadmium battery installation in the world.
Figure 1 Saft Stationary Nickel Cadmium Bat-
tery (Source: Saft Web Site)
A myth that seems to continue to plague the nickel cad-
mium technology is the notion that the battery has a memory
effect that requires special handling in order to maintain the
capacity of a battery. Most of these ideas are related to user
experience with sealed cylindrical nickel cadmium cells typi-
cally used in portable household appliances. Memory can be
an issue with these types of cells; however, the memory prob-
lem does not exist in large stationary nickel cadmium batter- Lithium ion polymer secondary batteries are widely used
ies. in small applications such as laptop computers and cell
2 ) Nickel Metal Hydride phones.
The nickel metal hydride technology cells are typically as- One of the barriers to the development of large scale lith-
sembled in series to construct a monobloc and the monoblocs ium ion batteries is that, in order to operate the battery safely,
are assembled in a seriedparallel combination to meet proper controls are necessary at the cell level to maintain proper
voltage and capacity requirements for the target application. charging voltages and protect the battery from overcharge or
Typically, this technology is used in small applications such over discharge, conditions which can cause significant dam-
as cell phones, portable laptop computers, and portable two- age to a lithium ion cell. Figure 3, shown above, is a photo-
way radios. The larger applications are primarily motive graph of several Valence Technologies lithium ion polymer
power for electric vehicles. The robustness and cycle life
expectancy for this technology is the primary driver for its
use. However, this technology becomes extremely expensive Figure 2 Valence Technologies Lithium Ion
when batteries are assembled to operate in a mega-watt, Polymer Cells (photo from a presentation at San-
mega-watt hour environment and, consequently see very little dia National Laboratories)
potential use in large, utility scale applications at the present
time.
3) Lithium lon
Lithium ion technology has been hugely successful in the
portable battery market. Efforts to scale
these products up to larger capacities are
not straightforward, since the portable
technologies mostly use cobalt oxides in
the cathode material and this material cells which are the smallest component in a monobloc.
would be too expensive for the larger cells. In order to produce a functional monobloc, many cells will
Development is proceeding on a wide have to be placed in series to reach typical operating voltages
range of cathode materials and one of the in the 48 VDC range for telecommunications applications and
early successes is with doped nickel ox- up to 120 to 480 VDC for utility scale applications. As a re-
ides. Using this technology, As shown in sult, the cell management electronics must be capable of han-
Figure 2, Saft has developed a range of dling high powers typical of these applications. Development
cells up to 44 Ah and in high-power, of these high voltage monoblocs which are needed for utility
high-energy and mid range designs. The
high-power types can comfortably be
discharged at a rate of 10 times the
battery capacity.
4 ) Lithium lon Polymer
3 Figure
SAFTLith-
ium Ion
T'PllC

The lithium ion polymer technology has been under devel-

opment for over 20 years. Because of safety concerns associ-
ated with the instability of lithium metal, many potential users
scale applications is currently in progress.
5 ) Lithium Metal-Polymer
The primary difference between the lithium ion polymer
cell and the lithium metal-polymer cell is that there is no free
lithium metal in the lithium ion technology cell. There are
many safety benefits realized using the lithium ion polymer
technology, however, the use of pure lithium metal yields sev-
eral extra benefits that are not available in the lithium ion
avoid this technology. Much of the initial development activ- technology. One benefit is
ity was devoted to making the technology safe for routine use. that the lithium metal cell
A major benefit of this technology is in the energy density of contains a solid electrolyte so
the monobloc, which is more than three times the energy den- leakage of liquids is not an
sity of lead-acid technologies. Consequently, more energy issue with this cell. Another
can be made available in a much smaller space that that re- benefit is the ability of the
quired by lead-acid. lithium metal technology to
One major drawback to the use of this technology, is that it operate at higher rates in an
is aimed at energy applications and cannot be used in power energy application.
applications without special management. For example, other Figure 4 is a lithium metal-
technologies, such as the sodium sulfur battery can supply polymer monobloc manufactured
high currents for short periods of time or low currents for long by Avestor, a Canadian battery
periods of time with no detrimental effect to the battery. manufacturer located in
However, the lithium ion polymer technology, much like the Boucherville, Quebec, Canada.
energy based lead-acid technology, can sustain heavy damage The battery is a 48 VDC, 70 Ah
if exposed to high discharge rates for more than a few sec- monobloc that is currently in test
onds. in the telecommunications industry. Avestor is planning to
develop a larger monobloc in the 120 to 240 VDC range that

166
will be available support utility scale applications in the power
utility industry.
6 ) Sodium Sulfur
The sodium sulfur battery, better know as the NaS Battery,
is in wide use in Japan where NGK and TEPCO have over
100 MWh installed at several sites in Japan. Figure 5 on the
following page shows a 6 MW, 48 MWh battery used for peak
shaving at a TEPCO/NGK site in Japan. One major feature
for the use of the NaS technology in stationary applications is
that the energy density of the battery is three times that of
lead-acid. Another major feature is that the NaS battery can
sustain a factor of five times rated current for up to 10 min-
utes without inflicting any damage to the cells. The short-
term overload feature allows the battery to be used in both
power and energy applications. The NaS battery is expected
to deliver over 1500, 100% discharges during its lifetime. It
Figure 5 NaS Battery in Japan (photo from Dr.
P h i h Svmons)
is also immune to problems typically associated with operat-
ing batteries for long periods of time at some intermediate
state of charge. NaS technology is relatively insensitive to
chronic overcharge and over discharge that is detrimental to
most energy storage batteries.
The first US installation of a NaS battery is located in
Gahanna, Ohio providing peak shaving and power quality
services to an American Electric Power administration build-
ing.
B. Flow Technologies
There are several flow technology batteries that are nearing
commercialism for use in utility stationary battery applica-
tions. A major advantage of a flow technology that delivers
AC power is that the power and energy functions are decoup-
led. Energy is stored external to the battery in the form of a
charged electrolyte, the larger the storage tank, the more en-
ergy that is available. Power output is determined by the
power electronics that is attached to the battery. Typically the
battery is used in an energy application for long duration, me-
dium to high power discharges. Flow batteries are typically
less expensive to produce as the components are made up of
plastics, plumbing, and associated pumps.
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1 ) Regenesys
The Regenesys technology was developed in the United
Kingdom during the past ten years. It is truly a utility scale
battery with 120 MWh of energy and a 15 MVA power out-
put. It is used for peak shaving and frequency regulation ap-
plications. The first unit of its kind is nearing commissioning
in the UK. The first US installation of a Regenesys battery is
going to be used to defer the upgrade of a highly congested
transmission system in the southeast. It is expected to enter
service in mid 2004.
2 ) Zinc Bromine
Zinc Bromine technology batteries have been developed
by two companies in the US, ZBB and Powercell (Powercell
is no longer in business). The ZBB battery, as shown in Fig-
ure 6, is a 200 KW, 400 KWh battery that is used for stabiliz-
ing a long distribution feeder that has a verv Deakv load which
I Figure 6 Zinc Bromine Battery in Field Test
I
caused severe frequency and voltage swings as the load was
switched on and off. The battery was charged and discharged
as required to maintain a constant voltage and frequency on
the feeder.
Over the past several years, significant improvements on
this technology have been made under sponsorship of the
DOE Energy Storage Systems Program. The promise of this
technology is very evident but there is significant resistance to
wide spread use of the technology as utilities are not con-
vinced of its long term life expectancy and system reliability.
3) Vanadium Redox
The Vanadium Redox technology was initially developed
in Australia and further refined in Japan. Output power and
capacity are determined by the number of the cell stacks and
the volume of the stored electrolyte. The cell stacks and the
electrolyte tanks can be placed in separate locations. Conse-
quently, the storage media can be placed in non-rigid rubber
bladders in locations such as under floors or in parking struc-
tures where the storage containers do not impact productive
space in an office or plant environment.
There are several sites in Japan where this technology is in
current operation. The primary distributor for this technology
is Sumitomo Electric USA, Inc. located in Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia.
C. Non Batteries
Because lead-acid batteries have a bad reputation for poor
performance in utility scale applications, the development of
alternative energy storage devices was undertaken in the US.
Two major developments in non-battery energy storage is the
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system
and the flywheel. Another storage component that is attempt-
ing to enter the utility scale energy storage market is the su-
percapacitor also known as the ultra capacitor. A major ad-
vantage of non-battery energy storage is that the number of
cycles expected from these technologies is substantially
higher than that expected in chemistry based storage tech-
nologies. There are also no liquid electrolytes to be con-
cerned with and no hazardous materials that need to be dis-
posed of at end of life.
1 ) Supercapacitors
Supercapacitors are something of a hybrid device where
energy storage is based on the storage of power in electric
fields and the storage of energy in an electrolyte that separates
the positive and negative plates. Supercapacitors are able to
deliver high power for short periods of time but are currently
energy limited. An immediate application that may be ideal
for the supercapacitor is an electric vehicle where a high
amount of current is required for acceleration while velocity is
maintained by currents delivered by low rate, or energy, bat-
teries. Work is currently underway to assemble high energy
supercapacitors in an attempt to get supercapacitors into the
utility power arena.
Supercapacitors are in wide use in small applications such
as power backup in VCR's and small electronic devices. Be-
cause of their relative light weight and small size, superca-
pacitors are also used extensively for low energy ride-through
for switching between power sources, such as on commercial
aircraft, where power busses are switched in a break-before-
make operational mode that interferes with laptop computer
operations and public announcement systems on the aircraft.
2 ) Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) is based
on the physics of materials in a cryogenic environment where
Figure 7 American Superconductor, Inc.
SMES Trailer at a Utility Test Site I for power quality applications.
168
liquid helium is used to cool the conducting material to ap-
proximately 6" Kelvin. At that temperature, the ohmic resis-
tance of the conducting material is virtually zero. The super
conducting material is formed onto a magnetic frame which
holds the superconducting material. Then the magnetic com-
ponent is placed in a container of helium that is surrounded by
a vacuum which is then surrounded by a high temperature
container filled with liquid nitrogen. Once a current is intro-
duced into the superconducting coil, it continues to circulate
indefinitely with extremely low losses until the energy is ex-
tracted for use in power quality applications. Figure 7 is a
trailer containing the SMES device and all associated power
electronics. The trailer is located at a utility test site. The
current version of SMES is known as the Micro SMES that
has a power delivery level of up to 6 mega joules. A typical
application for this type of SMES system is for 3 MW, 3 sec-
ond operation for use in a transmission system to stabilize
transients on the power lines. A system such as this is cur-
rently installed and operating in Wisconsin.
3 ) Flywheels
Flywheels are just beginning to be commercialized. There
are several versions available that
range in the tens of kilowatts to
several hundreds of kilowatts.
Although the flywheel is primarily w
thought of as a power device, there
are some that can deliver multiple Series Flywheel
KWh. Two major versions of
flywheel rotors are in current
development, steel and composites
material. The steel rotor material
flywheels are typically found in
power devices what can supply tens
to hundreds of KW for up to 30
seconds. Active Power and Piller are ,
two flywheel manufactures that use 1
the steel flywheel for their
commercialized models. Composites
flywheels are typically energy de-
E
vices because they are able to
achieve very high rotor speed on the Figure 8 Beacon
order of 40,000 to 80,000 RPM. Power, 6 K W h
Figure 8 is a currently available Flywheel (photo
Beacon Power device that operates from the Beacon
at 48 VDC and delivers up to 6 Website)
KWh of energy.
Early flywheel testing yielded many horror stories about
managing the energy in a high-speed flywheel that goes out of
control. Most of these tests were done to determine the de-
structive nature of flywheels and some dramatic results
caused great concern among potential flywheel users. Since
the completion of the initial test programs, improvements in
materials and system design have resulted in many different
manufacturers entering the flywheel market and many fly-
wheels are currently in use in the Southeastern United States
 IV. CONCLUSIONS
Lead-acid batteries have been the most widely used energy
devices for more than 100 years. With the introduction of
new chemistry batteries and other energy storage devices cur-
rently in progress, the lead-acid battery is now facing compe-
tition in utility scale energy storage applications. Lithium
technology batteries are fast becoming cost effective with
safety issues being resolved. New flow batteries will deliver
the super high energy levels needed to support utility applica-
tions. New energy storage components such as SMES, fly-
wheels, and supercapacitors are fast becoming cost effective,
reliable power sources. But until the day the new technolo-
gies are broadly accepted, lead-acid battery use will continue
to flourish and the requirements for good, sound maintenance
practices will continue to be provided by IEEE Standards and
Recommended Practices.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author gratefully acknowledges the use of the various
web sites for the photos and graphics depicted in this paper.

VI. BIOGRAPHY

Garth P. Corey is a Principal Member of the

Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories
assigned project management responsibilities with
the Energy Storage Systems Department. Since
completing a BSEE with the University of
Wyoming in 1969 and a MSEE with the Air Force
Institute of Technology in 1971, he has been
heavily involved in high technology research and
development projects. He is a member of the
IEEE Power Engineering Society and is currently
active with the IEEE PES Stationary Battery
Committee and IEEE SCC21, Energy Storage
Subsystem Working Group. In addition to his activities in power quality and
battery energy storage, he i s actively working with advanced technology battery
and energy storage systems manufacturers to assist in commercializing emerging
energy storage technologies.

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